The use of aluminum in the manufacture of heat exchangers is well known, because early on, it was recognized that aluminum had very good heat transfer properties and was light weight. However, the manufacture of current A-frame evaporators and condensers are rather labor intensive because they are primarily made with cylindrical tubes that are coupled to the fins by mechanically expanding the tubes into contact with the apertures in the fins. The end plates and copper return tubes are most often hand-brazed to the refrigerant tubes. Furthermore, assembly requires brazing joints between the various parts, and this involves locating the brazing material at the joints along with a suitable flux. Thus, poor braze joints can result in separation of the heat exchanger tubes from the manifold resulting in a leak, or the separation of the fin from the tube, thereby reducing the heat  exchanger efficiency.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an aluminum heat exchanger and a method of manufacturing the heat exchanger that is simpler and results in better, more uniform braze joints. 